Solomon wrote, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.” Proverbs 3:5-7 (NIV)
There are so many life truths that we can glean from this simple proverb that remind us of the necessity of dependence upon God. The ideals of faith in God, seeking his wisdom in life, submission to his Lordship, avoiding evil because of our reverence for the Lord… these are qualities of Christian faith that are foundational, and they provide a lifestyle philosophy that leads to a fruitful life in Christ.
Life with Christ all begins with trust and submission. We submit by admitting our need for spiritual rescue from the brokenness of our sin, and we trust in Christ’s sufficiency and righteousness to restore our broken relationship with God. That is step one for every follower of Jesus — submit ourselves to Christ by embracing his atoning work in our lives and place our faith in him as Lord and Savior.
But once we “trust in the Lord with all our heart” we need to intentionally “lean not on your own understanding”. It is essential for the Christian to seek the understanding of God in our lives… to not be “wise in your own eyes”, but to pursue the wisdom that comes from God. So we revere him as Lord as we abhor evil.
Gratefully God has given his people a powerful tool to help us trust in him and to not lean on our own understanding… the Bible. The Bible is God’s special revelation to Humanity. It contains all that we need to know about God’s nature and his desires for our lives so that we can know him.
For the next two weeks in our Sunday services we are going to be looking at the value of God’s Word. It is essentially necessary (yes, I know that is redundant but I don’t want you to miss it) for the believer to KNOW God’s word — and to know it deeply. If you do not know God’s Word well… then you are leaning on your own understanding… and Solomon warns us that is a very dangerous place to be because when we are wise in our own eyes; we can be guilty of not revering the Lord and opposing evil.
Let’s take the elections on Tuesday. Should the believer lean on his own understanding when it comes to who and what to vote for… or should they seek the wisdom of God? I know, that was a softball, Sunday school question. Of course every Christian would say that they should seek the wisdom of God — but do we?
Play along here with me… and I know… God is completely sovereign so the idea of him “voting” on anything is ridiculous… God decides how things should be and they just are… but how would God vote on Tuesday if he had one? Can we even know that? How would he evaluate political candidates? What priorities would he hold? How would God approach issues that require that “yes” or “no” vote? Can we even know that?
I would submit to you that a full and complete understanding of God’s Word goes a long way toward avoiding leaning on our own understanding and instead seeking the wisdom of God. So my prayer for all of us these next two weeks is that we would find a fresh hunger for God’s word because it is a lamp for our feet and light to our path. It is living and active in the life of the believer. It is directly inspired by the Holy Spirt. And… it was written just for you.
Leave a Reply